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5 Simple Facebook Advertising Tips For Small Businesses

Facebook advertising has proven to be an immensely powerful tool that has helped small businesses, global corporations, and everyone in between spread brand awareness and drive sales.

However, there’s more to the process than simply whipping up an ad, putting it out there, and waiting for the money to roll in.

There are many factors to take into consideration when planning a Facebook advertising campaign.

Let’s look at five of the most important tips to remember to help you get the best return for your advertising investment.

FACEBOOK ADVERTISING TIPS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES

1. Make Sure You’re Reaching The Right Audience

Novices to social media advertising often make the mistake of trying to reach as many people as possible. Trying to reach a broad audience is only a part of the puzzle because, without appropriate targeting, your Facebook advertising campaign will wind up in front of a lot of disinterested eyes. As a consequence, it will have a much lower chance of converting.

So instead of merely trying to reach as many people as possible, focus on reaching the right people. The ideal audience consists of people who are interested in what you have to offer and will also share your content with their own connections.

There are many criteria you can use to narrow down your target audience for maximum impact. But if you want to get the maximum return on your advertising investment, it’s essential to have a clear idea of who your customer is.

2. Build A Targeted Landing Page That Will Increase Conversions

One of the biggest mistake that new marketers make is putting so much energy into creating the perfect advertising campaign, that they neglect their landing page. This is often the result of overconfidence from people who are convinced their product is so great that it will sell itself. But there are other things to keep in mind even for people taking a more level-headed approach.

Bottom line, people need to see value before they will convert. If you can’t demonstrate that value within the first few seconds they’re looking at your landing page, you’ve already lost them.

Visual appeal is important, but you also need to be able to understand what your target audience expects from your campaign. Make sure your landing page copy reflects that.

It’s also important not to clutter the landing page up with too much information, only what the customer needs to see before they’re willing to spend money. Overwhelming them with seventeen paragraphs describing the benefits of your product is a surefire way to lose them. Keep it simple and to the point.

A good idea is to look at existing stores for inspiration. Exchange is full of successful businesses for sale, so simply find a high-performing business and see what their Facebook ad strategy looks like. This is easy to do: just head to the business’ Facebook page and click on Info and ads on the bottom of the menu on the left:

You can see from the above that SnoreLess is running a series of video ads in the US to draw in its (considerable) customers. And the SnoreLess page on Exchange shows you just how much it’s spending on Facebook ads too, a handy feature that can help guide your own ad strategy.

3. Choose An Appropriate Image

Unlike traditional PPC advertising on search queries, Facebook ads have a heavy emphasis on visual elements. As important as it is to make sure the copy in the ad will be useful, you also need to make sure to use an eye-catching image that will help you stand out on Facebook.

Facebook has been known to favor ads with very little text, or even no text at all, over ads that contain an image and a lengthy blurb, so think of ways to put the focus on the image rather than the text.

Ensure that whatever image you use is in some way related to whatever you’re advertising. Avoid using images that look good but aren’t relevant to the content of your ad. Strive for quality and relevancy. Check out the example below from StackSocial:

A high-quality rendering of an eye-catching purple monster displays what the product does with slick, attractive graphics. It’s an ad that will stand out on a Facebook feed, both for quality and relevancy.

4. Learn To Leverage Video Advertising

As much as Facebook likes image-based advertising, they absolutely love ads that incorporate video. Facebook gives an incredible amount of weight to video content. If you’re serious about getting the most out of your Facebook advertising, creating video ads is absolutely essential to getting in front of your target audience.

Of course, video advertising includes certain considerations that aren’t a factor when it comes to image or text-based ads. For one, you need to catch the viewer’s attention within the first few seconds. Otherwise, they will simply keep scrolling by.

Don’t spend too much time worrying about the audio component either. Most Facebook users start watching videos on mute, and will only turn the sound on if they find the videos interesting enough to do so.

5. Use A Well-Designed Sales Funnel

As powerful as Facebook ads can be, just like any other form of advertising, you won’t get the most out of it when it’s served cold. People who are unfamiliar with your brand may be reluctant to give you what you’re looking for at the first point of contact. Consequently, it’s often helpful to use a sales funnel to warm your audience up before you start trying to convert them.

As the name implies, a sales funnel starts at the top with your entire target audience. As the sales process progresses, you narrow that audience further and further down until you wind up at the bottom with the people who convert. A sales funnel isn’t designed to deliver instant results. Rather, it’s designed to create demand over time.

When you’re first starting out at the top of the funnel, the goal should be to familiarize people with your brand and your product.

Once you’ve had their attention for enough time, show them why your product or service is worth their time and money. Only once you’ve passed through those two stages can you reach the point of conversion.

Conclusion

If you’ve been struggling with Facebook advertising and haven’t felt like you’ve been getting the most out of your advertising money, following the tips above will help you start to build momentum and drive the conversions you desire.

Facebook advertising is an incredible tool that can spread your brand awareness far beyond what traditional advertising could ever hope to offer.